


Ashes to Ashes: Heaven Can Wait

by Dragongrl04



Category: Ashes to Ashes (UK TV)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fix-it fic, Gene and Alex are meant to be, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-14
Updated: 2020-10-15
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:27:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27005050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dragongrl04/pseuds/Dragongrl04
Summary: Heaven is nothing without the people you love. Alex is left unsatisfied with her supposed 'happy ending', so chooses another one.
Relationships: Alex Drake/Gene Hunt, Annie Cartwright/Sam Tyler
Comments: 13
Kudos: 17





	1. Chapter One: Heaven

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: I was furious at the way Ashes ended. It was beautiful and broken and GALEX DESERVED BETTER. Here is my fix-it fic.  
> My first published fanfic, so please be kind! Reviews are to me as air is to non-fandom members. Enjoy ;)  
> Obviously I don’t own Ashes. If I did, this would be canon! I also don’t own Meat Loaf’s Heaven Can Wait. Beautiful song though.  
> Fuck Keats.  
> Dragongrl04 x

**Chapter One**

**Heaven**

_Heaven can wait,_

_And all I’ve got is time, until the end of time…_

Turns out Heaven, even in a pub with free booze, is nothing without the people you love.

Yes, Chris and Shaz were there, and even Ray had dialled down the racism and misogyny.

It’s wonderful to see Sam without thinking he’s insane, and the happiness he had with Annie was definitely worth jumping off a building for.

Everyone else was at peace with their happy endings, their forevers. It was only Alex who’d been left unsatisfied, left with the aching knowledge that the two people who mattered most to her had been left in the dark while she moved on.

Her daughter, Molly, was left motherless, the same way she had been, all those years ago. She would never see her grow up, into the strong, confident, amazing woman she knew her daughter would one day be.

And Gene.

 _Gene_.

The flawed, honourable ferryman, who saved others’ souls but refused to save his own.

She missed him.

His pout.

His smile.

His laugh.

_Bollykecks._

She missed the person she was when she was with him. The person he was with her. _God_ , she even missed his sexism and mangled metaphors. She had it bad, she knew, but she was too far gone to even care anymore.

She could have been sitting at the bar a week, a month, years or less than a minute when Nelson approached her, chocolate eyes full of concern. Time was strange there- all she knew was that it was long enough to feel like forever, but brief enough that the pain of missing him was sharp and raw as ever, a constant agony in the deepest depths of her soul.

“Ah, _ma cher_ ,” the barman (God?) sighed, topping up her glass of champagne (Bollinger, what else?). “A beautiful woman like you being so sad is surely a crime.”

She liked Nelson, with his broad accent and warm smile, but this remark only served to make her snort bitterly. “Why should I be happy? Everyone I love is elsewhere.”

“Molly will be fine, Alex.”

“How do you know-” she stopped herself, shaking her head. “Never mind. Of course you know.”

“I know about Gene Hunt too, _ma cher_.”

“What about him?” She snorted again. “Bloody man’s too stubborn for his own good.”

“And for yours.” She glanced at him in silent agreement.

“You love him.”

“I shouldn’t.” He hummed in amiable disagreement.

“It’s a bad idea.”

“Love always is.”

“What’s the point, anyway?” She asked with a sudden flash of anger. “He’s never coming. He’s going to stay the same ‘armed bastard’ as always and- and-” She stuttered to a halt, tears clogging her throat and her vision.

“And what, _ma cher_?” Nelson pressed gently.

“And forgetting. Alone.” She said softly. It hurt to say it, let alone believe it to be true.

“We all forget, eventually, if we’re left alone,” he told her. He left, presumably to serve drinks or advice to some other dead copper who needed it.

Alex liked Nelson, but he never provided answers to the questions she really needed.

“He’s got a point, I think,” A voice behind her commented. Sam.

“What point?” She asked, pain lending her voice a knife’s edge. Annie joined them, her soft Mancunian accent soothing her a little - enough that she felt guilty for being so harsh, anyway.

“If you leave ‘im alone, ‘course ‘e’ll forget. The Guv needs to be reminded.”

“How? I’m stuck here, aren’t I?” she replied hopelessly.

“Nothing’s certain here, Alex. Surely you know that by now,” Sam reprimanded gently. “Anyway, the fire exit’s still open.” Sure enough, FIRE EXIT glowed green over a door in the corner.

She wondered why she hadn’t noticed it before- too wrapped up in her grief, she assumed. Hope glimmered, for the first time since she’d arrived.

“I’d have gone myself, but I couldn’t leave Annie.” Sam mused. “He needs you, by all accounts. Looks like you need him and all.”

He was right, she knew, and in that moment she made a decision; the only decision that had ever truly mattered.

She took one last look at the Pub, at her friends and the happy ending she couldn’t share, and stepped through the door, back to London.

Back to Gene.


	2. Chapter Two: Back into Hell

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex has left the Pub for London- for Gene. Her thoughts as she does so.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: If you weren’t utterly disgusted by the first chapter, here’s another one! Chapter title was inspired by Meat Loaf again (great, great band), and I still don’t own either the song or Ashes, sadly.  
> I am inexperienced at this, so please let me know if I’ve got them OOC or not.  
> Reviews are like chocolate and good friends- the more you have, the better!  
> Dragongrl04 x

**Chapter Two**

**Back into Hell**

_You said love was forever_

_Oh but neither one of us will ever surrender_

London looked exactly the same- it was like she’d never left.

It was still a dark night, drenched with rain and shockingly quiet considering the usual city hum.

She wondered how much time had passed, if any. There was nobody around, nothing to help her get her bearings, to know which point in time she’d been transported to.

She suddenly had a thought, one which made her chest spasm in panic.

What if she was too late?

What if Gene didn’t remember her, remember who they were to each other?

What if she was now a stranger, a shadow of a memory in the darkest recesses of his mind, only thought of in the quiet moments between dreams, too insubstantial to be real?

She shook herself.

She’d be there and so would he. The rest was immaterial.

If he didn’t remember her, well, she’d just have to remind him, wouldn’t she? She could think of several ways to do that...


	3. Chapter Three: In the Rear View Mirror

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gene's perspective on missing part of his soul.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This one is from Gene! Hope I get him right.  
> Reviews are my lifeblood and without them I wither and die! Kudos makes me happy, too. Still don’t own Ashes or Meat Loaf (wish I did), although they are my inspiration.  
> Enjoy!  
> Dragongrl04 x

**Chapter Three**

**In the Rear View Mirror**

_We got our dreams reborn and our upholstery torn_

_But everything we tried was right_

Lonely was a strange word. 

It was not being alone, as in on your own. 

It was the feeling of emptiness, the knowledge that you were missing a vital piece of your soul and without it you would never be whole.

CID had its new recruits, and as such, in the daytime Gene was rarely alone. 

He was always lonely, though.

_Saudade,_ he thought Bolly had called it once. A longing so deep it never goes away. The knowledge that everything you wanted, _needed_ to feel alive was out of reach. 

He’d dismissed it at the time, called it _bollocks_ with a teasing smirk, but in this case she was right (not that he’d ever have admitted it).

_Saudade_ was exactly what he had felt ever since the moment she left.

He felt himself forgetting, sometimes, and when this happened he got out the tapes he found in her old apartment and listened to her voice, with its unique red-wine cadence, until all he could see in his head was her.

He didn’t know his new team, not really, and none of them would argue with him the way Alex did, with flashing eyes and fearsome fury. They all knew the legend of the Manchester Lion, and feared him so much that they would only ever serve without question. 

Even Wonder Chris had been better than they were, especially near the end.

So there he was, in his office, his deserted kingdom without its queen, with a half-empty whisky tumbler cradled in his hand.

So when he heard her voice, breathing his name like a reverent prayer, he knew he must have been dreaming.


	4. Chapter 4: Paradise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sparks fly as the pair are reunited.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: The Galex reunion! Hearts and feels and kudos and reviews!  
> Enjoy- again, I don’t own anything (*sob*).  
> Dragongrl04 x

_ Baby don’t you hear my heart _

_ You got it drowning out the radio _

“Gene.” It slipped out of her, unnoticed, as she took in the sight of her Lion, sitting on his throne with a whisky in his hand. 

She didn’t know what she’d expected, but to be utterly ignored was not it. He didn’t even deign to look at her, despite the fact that she had left  _ heaven _ in order to be with him.

This, she decided after a moment of numbed shock, pissed her off. Actually, it incensed her in the way that only Gene  _ sodding _ Hunt could. 

“Gene.” This time when she spoke, her voice held a diamond edge of warning. 

“I know how this goes.” His voice was a flat monotone. “I turn round, you disappear like a bloody fairy.”

“Oh, for God’s sake.” She strode towards him and grabbed his shoulders, forcing him to look at her. He let out a breath, several emotions battling for dominance on his face.

“You’re ‘ere then.” Alex melted, but tried not to let it show.

“Well,  _ someone  _ had to tell you when you’re wrong.” He shook his head, snorting with disbelief.

“Even ‘eaven couldn’t satisfy you, eh, Bollykecks?” She looked at him then, properly, and saw the weariness set deep in his bones. She searched his eyes- that intense silver-blue- and hoped he could see the truth in hers.

“There was something missing.”

“Alex.” There were a thousand possible meanings behind that one word, and she doubted even Gene himself knew which one he meant.

“Gene.”

  
“Why?” Why had she come back? Why was she here? Why did she need  _ him _ , of all people?

“Because you and I, Guv… We’re unbreakable.”

He held her, then, limbs wrapped around each other like a lifeline, foreheads pressed together, hearts beating as one. A frantic, unspoken declaration of life and love and apologies neither would admit to. 

They were finally home.


	5. Chapter Five: Dreams Come Through

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The morning after Alex's return.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: So... Gene and Alex wake up together! (*wink, wink*)  
> Still own nothing but the dreams of what might have been.  
> Enjoy and review!
> 
> ****EDIT****  
> Hi. I am so so sorry, but after losing the plot of this story and getting caught up in the Merlin and AoS fandoms, I am finishing this fic here, although anyone who wants to continue it is more than welcome to! Thank you for reading and for the support from users like Youstupidplonk. You are all amazing!  
> Stay safe,  
> Dragongrl04
> 
> ****EDIT**** 
> 
> I now have a Tumblr!!! It's @dragongrl04 if anyone's interested :)

_I treasure your love_  
_I never want to lose it_  
_You've been through the fires of hell_  
_And I know you've got the ashes to prove it_

That night, they went back to Alex’s flat, which had lain deserted since she’d gone.

Luigi wasn’t there- gone back ‘home’, she remembered, though God knew where that was- but his nephew Mario was, and he welcomed his uncle’s favourite customers back with open arms.

They got merry but not drunk on the bottle of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, and ended up dancing to Spandau Ballet again, only this time they weren’t interrupted- although it wouldn’t have mattered if every criminal in London had come knocking on the door, because they were there, together, and they had waited so long for this that they’d be damned if anything was going to ruin it.

The next morning, Gene woke in a tangle of silken sheets and sunlight, Alex’s head resting sleepily on his chest, and he thought his heart would burst with the sheer joy of not being lonely anymore.

They got ready together, Gene glad that he’d had the forethought to hang his clothes up the night before, and when Alex checked her jacket pocket- the white one, the one she hadn’t worn since she was shot- there was her warrant card, restored to its former glory, though she was  _ sure  _ she’d let it at the Pub. 

It seemed like a sign, a positive omen that everything was the way it should be.

They walked to the station, hand in hand. No point in hiding that they were together; it was obvious to anyone with two brain cells to rub together that something monumental had shifted between them, that a cataclysm had occurred.

Alex steeled herself with the knowledge that CID wouldn’t be the same- Ray, Chris and Shaz were the lifeblood of the old CID, the heart- but it still hurt to see different faces occupying their desks.

One thing  _ hadn’t  _ changed, though- when they strode into CID, side by side, indomitable, all eyes turned to them.


End file.
